PLATEAU KILLINGS: MILITARY COMPLICITY - HON. B. KAZE

Hon. Bitrus Kaze is the only legislator in the NASS from Plateau State worth his title. He has proved himself over and over that he cares for his people and that he is fearless, to the shame of his other 7 colleagues and 3 Senators from his State. This is not the first time that attackers of innocent Plateau indigenes will leave behind evidence that they are Nigerian military personnel. Yet nobody in Abuja has deemed it fit to investigate further. The Federal Government is now clearly complicit in the genocide on the Plateau. May God come to our rescue. Amen. Thank you, Kaze, for speaking up in such a mature and gentlemanly manner.

Jos Attacks: Lawmaker Laments Military Complicity

THISDAY LIVE, By SERIKI ADINOYI, 21 Aug 2011

The representative of Jos South/Jos East Federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Bitrus Kaze, has decried the alleged complicity of soldiers in the recent Jos attacks, describing it as very unfortunate.

He added that “it has done incalculable damage to the image of the military and particularly the Special Task Force (STF) on the Plateau.”

Kaze, who was addressing the press in Jos, lamented that “in the recent attack in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, no less a person than the chairman of the local government came out to say they found three ID cards and a military barrette; this is not the first time military ID cards have been found at the site of crime. It is a very sad testimony of the STF.

“And what worries me is that in spite that grievous allegation, it appears to me that STF has not come out, at least to deny it. It is really very strange and worrisome to me that in a scene of such a heinous crime, where a family of seven was wiped out, and an allegation of this nature was leveled against the military, it says nothing about it. It appears to me that the story surrounding the complicity is being given some genuineness”.

He, however, said there were commendable traits in the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Azubike Ihejirika and the General Officer Commanding, 3, Division, Jos, Major General Sunday Idoko, “for the different approach their regime has given to the Jos crisis”.

This, he added, was unlike in the days of Lt Gen Abdulrahman Danbazzau and Major Gen Saleh Maina. “Now, there is an improved response; the response is quicker and more effective than what we’ve seen in the past. In those days, criminality will be perpetrated for hours under the watchful eyes of soldiers, and nothing would happen.”

Kaze also said he was encouraged by the recent decision of the Defence Minister, Dr Halilu Bello, and Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petirin, to investigate the conduct of troops in Maiduguri.

But “if the killing of one pregnant woman has triggered the Defence Headquarters to investigate, I wonder why we have not heard the Ministry of Defence or the Defence Headquarters call for investigation of the massacre that have taken place on the Plateau.”

“As if we are not in the same country; hundreds of people were killed in Dogo Nahawa and other places on the Plateau, nobody has bothered to institute an investigative case on the matter. It seems to me as we are being treated differently,” he submitted.